This invention relates to electrical connectors for retention on circuit boards and more particularly concerns means for retaining such a connector on a circuit board while solder tails of terminals of the connector are soldered to contact pads on the circuit board.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,847,588 and 4,900,276 disclose pin header connectors having terminal pins with means for retaining the header in position on the circuit board while the terminal pins are soldered to the board. Such retention is accomplished by means of an offset formed as a crimp at the insertion end of at least one pair of the terminal pins. The crimps exert opposite normal forces against one surface of their respective holes in the circuit board to retain the header thereon during soldering. In order to provide adequate opposite normal forces, the terminal pins are necessarily thick and stiff. Each terminal pin contacts the one side of the internal wall of its hole and only with the crest of its crimp. The cross sectional dimensions of the holes are critical, if the crimps are not to jam in the holes, especially during robotic assembly of the connectors.